provinceorstate:tuscany

  • #Agromafie e #caporalato: 430 mila lavoratori a rischio sfruttamento

    L’Osservatorio Placido Rizzotto della Flai Cgil fotografa la situazione nel suo quarto rapporto «Agromafie e caporalato». Un fenomeno che si estende dal Sud al Nord Italia. Tra giornate lavorative di 12 ore e pagate una manciata di euro

    https://www.flai.it/osservatoriopr
    #mafia #agriculture #exploitation #travail #Italie #agromafia

    Pour télécharger le #rapport (c’est la troisième édition):


    https://www.flai.it/osservatoriopr/ilrapporto
    –-> La principale attività dell’Osservatorio è la redazione del rapporto Agromafie e Caporalato, un rapporto biennale sull’infiltrazione delle mafie nella filiera agroalimentare e sulle condizioni di lavoro nel settore. Dopo la prima (2012) e la seconda (2014) edizione, a Maggio del 2016 è stato presentato il terzo rapporto Agromafie e Caporalato, ormai un lavoro di inchiesta e ricerca diventati in pochi anni un riferimento per chiunque voglia approfondire il tema delle Agromafie e delle condizioni di lavoro in agricoltura.

    • ‘Agromafia’ Exploits Hundreds of Thousands of Agricultural Workers in Italy

      In Italy, over 400,000 agricultural labourers risk being illegally employed by mafia-like organisations, and more than 132,000 work in extremely vulnerable conditions, enduring high occupational suffering, warns the fourth report on Agromafie and Caporalato.

      The report, released this July by the Italian trade union for farmers, Flai Cgil, and the research institute Osservatorio Placido Rizzotto, sheds light on a bitter reality that is defined by the report itself as “modern day slavery”. The criminal industry is estimated to generate almost five billion euros.

      “The phenomenon of ‘Caporalato’ is a cancer for the entire community,” Roberto Iovino from Osservatorio Placido Rizzotto, told IPS. “Legal and illegal activities often intertwine in the agro-food sector and it ultimately becomes very difficult to know who is operating in the law and who is not.”

      The criminal structure is called Caporalato or Agromafia when it touches a number of aspects of the agri-food chain. It is administered by ‘Caporali’, who decide on working hours and salaries of workers. The phenomenon is widespread across Italy. From Sicilian tomatoes, to the green salads from the province of Brescia, to the grape harvest used for producing the ‘Franciacorta’ sparkling wine in Lombardia, to the strawberries harvested in the region of Basilicata—many of these crops would have been harvested by illegally-employed workers, according to the report.

      Miserable salaries and excessive working hours

      The average wages of the exploited, warns the report, range between 20 and 30 euros per day, at an hourly rate of between three to four euros. Many reportedly work between eight to 14 hours per day, seven days a week. The majority of the collected testimonies show that many workers are paid less than their actual time worked and their salaries are 50 percent lower than the one outlined by the national contract for farmers.

      In some areas like Puglia or Campania in southern Italy, most salaries are paid on a piecework basis or per task.

      Some workers reported to Flai-Cgil that they were paid only one euro per hour and that they had to pay 1.5 euros for a small bottle of water, five euros for the transportation to reach the field and three euros for a sandwich at lunchtime each day. Day labourers are also required to pay between 100 to 200 euros for rent, often in abandoned, crumbling facilities or in remote and less-frequented hotels.

      The money was paid to the ‘Caporale’ or supervisor.

      According to the report, a ‘Caporale’ earns between 10 to 15 euros a day per labourer under their management, with each managing between 3,000 to 4,000 agricultural workers. It is estimated that their average monthly profit fluctuates between tens to hundreds of thousands of euros per month, depending on their position in the pyramid structure of the illegal business. It is alleged in the report that no tax is paid on the profits and this costs the state in lost income and also impacts on companies operating within the law.

      “Those people [‘Caporali’] are not naive at all,” one of the workers told the trade union’s researchers. “They know the laws, they find ways of counterfeiting work contracts and mechanisms to [circumvent] the National Social Security Institute.” The institute is the largest social security and welfare institute in Italy.

      “They have a certain criminal profile,” the worker explained.

      Migrant victims

      The ‘Caporali’ are not just Italians but Romanians, Bulgarians, Moroccans and Pakistanis, who manage their own criminal and recruiting organisations. The report warns that recruitment not only takes place in Italy but also in the home countries of migrants like Morocco or Pakistan.

      In 2017, out of one million labourers, 286,940 were migrants. It is also estimated that there are an additional 220,000 foreigners who are not registered.

      African migrants also reportedly receive a lower remuneration than that paid to workers of other nationalities.

      These victims of Agromafia live in a continuous state of vulnerability, unable to claim their rights. The report points out that some workers have had their documents confiscated by ‘Caporali’ for the ultimate purpose of trapping the labourers. It also highlights the testimonies of abuse, ranging from physical violence, rape and intimidation. One Afghan migrant who asked to be paid after months without receiving any pay, said that he had been beaten up because of his protests.

      The report also estimates that 5,000 Romanian women live in segregation in the Sicilian countryside, often with only their children. Because of their isolation many suffer sexual violence from farmers.

      Luana told Flai-Cgil of her abuse. “He offered to accompany my children to school, which was very far to reach on foot,” she said. “If I did not consent to this requests, he threatened not to accompany them any more and even to deny us drinking water.”

      “We have to put humanity first, and then profit”

      Many of the victims hesitate to report their exploiters because they are fearful of losing their jobs. A Ghanaian boy working in Tuscany told Flai-Cgil that Italians have explained to him how to lay a complaint, but he holds back because he still has to send money to his family.

      During the report release Susanna Camusso, secretary general of the country’s largest trade union, CGIL, said: “We must rebuild the culture of respect for people, including migrants. These are people who bend their backs to collect the food we eat and who move our economy.

      “We must help these people to overcome fear, explaining to them that there is not only the monetary aspect to work. A person could be exploited even if he holds a decent salary. We have to put humanity first, and then profit .”

      http://www.ipsnews.net/2018/07/agromafia-exploits-hundreds-thousands-agricultural-workers-italy

    • Is Italian Agriculture a “Pull Factor” for Irregular Migration—and, If So, Why?

      In discussions on irregular migration in Europe, undeclared work is generally viewed as a “pull factor”—positive aspects of a destination-country that attract an individual or group to leave their home—for both employers as well as prospective migrants, and especially in sectors such as agriculture. A closer examination of the agricultural model, however, reveals that structural forces are driving demand for work and incentivizing exploitation. This is particularly evident in Southern Italy, a region famous for its produce, where both civil society organizations and the media have documented exploitation of migrant workers. A closer examination of EU and member states efforts to avoid exploitation is needed.

      In Is Italian Agriculture a ‘Pull Factor’ for Irregular Migration—and, If So, Why?, a new study, authors from the Open Society Foundations’ European Policy Institute and the European University Institute look at how Europe’s Common Agricultural Policy, the practices of supermarket chains, organized crime, and gang-master recruitment practices contribute to migrant exploitation. The study further recommends a closer examination of EU member state efforts to counter exploitation and offers an overview of private sector practice’s intended to combat exploitation—such as the provision of information on workers’ rights, adequate housing and transport, and EU-wide labeling schemes, among others.

      https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/reports/italian-agriculture-pull-factor-irregular-migration-and-if-s
      #rapport #pull-factor #facteur_pull

    • #Reggio_Calabria, pagavano i braccianti meno di un euro a ora per lavorare dall’alba al tramonto: cinque arresti

      Con l’accusa di intermediazione illecita e sfruttamento del lavoro, estorsione e istigazione alla corruzione, i carabinieri hanno arrestato cinque persone a Sant’Eufemia d’Aspromonte, in provincia di Reggio Calabria.


      https://www.ilfattoquotidiano.it/2019/03/05/reggio-calabria-pagavano-i-braccianti-meno-di-euro-allora-per-lavorare-dallalba-al-tramonto-5-arresti/5015030

  • Underpaid, illegal migrants unwittingly used on idyllic Tuscan estate owned by Sting

    The allegations came to light as part of a wide-ranging investigation by Italian police and prosecutors into the use of refugees and asylum seekers from Africa and Asia on estates in Tuscany.

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/10/14/underpaid-illegal-migrants-unwittingly-used-on-idyllic-tuscan-es

    #Toscane #Italie #agriculture #exploitation #travail #migrations #réfugiés #asile

  • Timeless Lessons in Permaculture & Tree Crops From Tuscany, Sardinia & Corsica - Walden Labs
    http://waldenlabs.com/permaculture-tree-crops

    My wife Erica and I traveled to this area, in part, to study and immerse in centuries-old intentional ecosystems including the famed chestnut forests of Corsica, along with sometimes millenia-old infrastructure through the region, and to experience:

    What J Russel Smith wrote about in the famous Tree Crops: A Permanent Agriculture. Was it true? Was there really a large mountainous region cloaked in massive chestnuts that supported a centuries-old culture and agriculture – that was all human-planted?

    #permaculture #agroforesterie #corse #italie #sardaigne #chataignier

  • Giant Cruise Ships to be Banned from Venice Beginning Next Year | Italy Magazine
    http://www.italymagazine.com/news/giant-cruise-ships-be-banned-venice-beginning-next-year
    http://www.italymagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/313xauto/public/story/navi.jpg?itok=FGZUl6Tq

    Large cruise ships passing through the Venice lagoon are to be banned effective November 2014, and a limit on smaller cruise vessels will kick in January, government officials in Rome ordered on Tuesday.
    The order came following a meeting between Italy’s Prime Minister Enrico Letta, his transport and culture ministers and Venice city officials and regional authorities, discussing how to implement in Venice a law that bans large ships from passing near Italian shores. The law was enacted nationwide following the crash of the Costa Concordia cruise ship in early 2012, which killed 32 people off the coast of Tuscany, but was not applied in Venice where the cruise industry plays a key role in the local economy.
    As of January, the traffic volume of cruise ships weighing between 40,000 and 96,000 tonnes must be reduced to no more than five ships per day. The outright ban starting November 2014 only applies to those over 96,000 tonnes (similar to the Costa Concordia).
    According to the order, cruise traffic will eventually be rerouted through the Contorta Sant’Angelo Canal. Environmentalists warn that the lagoon surrounding Venice, itself a UNESCO heritage site, is at great risk due to its fragile ecosystem and Venice residents have staged many protests over the invasion of the cruise ships. Currently, cruise ships pass within 300 metres (1,000 feet) of St Mark’s Square. Over the past 15 years, Venice has become one of the world’s most important cruise destinations, with more than 650 cruise ships passing through the city annually.
    “Finally the trend towards gigantic ships in the lagoon has been turned around,” the mayor of Venice, Giorgio Orsoni, said in a statement on Tuesday. “We’ve had enough of these mega cruise ships just meters away from San Marco; from now on there will be clear limits on the size of ships that can enter Venice.”

    #society
    #travel
    #Venice
    #Large-cruise-ships